How to schedule deep work: Time blocking | Cal Newport and Lex Fridman

To sum up the video; 1. be a planner before starting your day 2. 30 min, 90 min blocks with specified topics of work/ deep work 3. quarterly(season; winter summer..,etc.), weekly(week targets) and daily planner(precisely to one day) 4. Big picture vision of what you want to get done 5. Get rid of distractions (distraction is evil) 6. If you're rolling, keep it rolling (the flow state) 7. bonus; successful people really enjoy the thing they do, don't force yourself..make it fun or pick up a new one!

It’s nice to hear others express difficulty with writing and keeping schedules.

Its not about being busy. Its about having a life. There is so much in life, so much I want to get done. Scheduling is the only way to do what you want to do every day by spending a reasonable amount of time on each thing. And you realise how much more hours there are in the day to get stuff done and still get 7-8 hours sleep.

Amazing advice! What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50 percent.

Thank you, I found answers to some of my questions. Finally, someone's story about using time blocking without being overly positive and shares the hard parts and the ultimate goal.

"I do not want to be busy, I want to be right"

Hearing a lot of comments on 'zoom fatigue', which conflicts with my own experience... It's like my lifeline to connect with coworkers. I value it. Sure, have to be ruthless in declining when it doesn't make sense - but - a productive discussion, or a meeting turned 'social chatter' is really valuable.

so many great convos in this ep

I just put this podcast on and in just one minute time I got so.much out of it. Now I know just what to do. Thanks Cal and Lex. You're both brilliant. Wendy wifefridman

3:55 I did this for a looooong time and voilà! Here i am. I discovered that this unstructured work time just made my work unfocused and without a goal, which made me easily distractable by other things and by my own work since never knew when to stop. It's like reading a book and "planning" "study this book for 2h or more" or "read just till you get tired", like you're going to read a full book in a day instead of setting a chapter or subchapter number. As a result i would constantly get just one thing done, with a lot of interruptions and not knowing if i had progressed in some way besides "reading more" or "doing more", having Checkpoints is crucial (even games have that!), not using it is like going to the gym and doing some things and instead working out with (daily, weekly and monthly) goals and intentions. For me this approach is best for work - so you don't overwork by asking the impossible (like do a full project in a day instead working on parts of it) or underwork by being lost, overwhelmed and distracted - but It's bad for free time. After thinking and moving too hard and forcing yourself to be disciplined the last thing you want is to be that totalitarian with your fun; i schedule "free time" and i don't strictly plan what to do but i have some desires (the things we put off while in work) and i indulge myself by being unstructured by design, you can call "Artistic Time" or "Creative Tim", for me things usually figure themselves out. I know what i want to do once i start and i don't run out of videos, episodes or game missions (because, well, those things are Inifinity Pools, endless sources of fun, now i can use that to my advantage instead of against me). P.S. I also don't do little pauses, i like to finish it in one batch, give me a hand and i will want the entire body. So none is better than some. It's also hard for me to regain my Flow once i stop (especially since my entainement is frequently cognitive demanding).

Some others have suggested that rather than put important things on a to-do list, put them on a daily schedule or calendar. There are far too many old ideas sold as new ideas, too many productivity and notes apps, to much redefining of old ideas as new ideas and too much BS in the productivity space. Great video ... I am a fan.

"My spirit is destroyed by even a 10 minute Zoom meeting." I felt that, deep.

Thank you so much !!

I wonder if the cold start motivation could come from spending time visualising what it could be, letting your mind rn about where it could lead, getting excited about the forest and trees and woods ahead. like a child.

Quarterly, weekly, daily.. F'ing saved my life. And color coding of course 🤗

Thank you.

"Kierkegaard with an internet connection" 🤣😅

If i wake up should i try to do a hour of deep work right away or wait until after i eat and then go into an hour of deep work

Excellent

This doesn’t really work for most employee’s. Trying to schedule ultimately leads to running out of time due to a manager or senior staff member dropping in new tasks whenever they see fit.